Can Sharks get two regulation wins in a row? Will Desjardins be looking over his shoulder? And more from LA

LOS ANGELES – Not to belabor a point, but the Sharks haven’t strung together a mere two regulation wins since the fourth and fifth games of the season, back when they were the reincarnation of the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens.

But that’s the goal tonight in their rematch with the Los Angeles Kings tonight that kicks off a five-game, 10-night road trip.

Don’t look for any changes in the San Jose lineup after that 4-3 victory over the same Kings at HP Pavilion on Thursday night, and that includes keeping Brent Burns on a top line with Joe Thornton and Logan Couture. The last players off the ice this morning were Tim Kennedy, TJ Galiardi and Jason Demers and that’s usually a pretty good signal as to who sits that night.

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No headline-grabbing news from the morning skate, but here’s a preview of what lies ahead:

*****I asked Andrew Desjardins if he expected any carryover ill will for that solid and spiritually devastating hit on Colin Fraser that helped turn the game in San Jose’s favor Thursday night.

“I think there probably still will be a little bit, but I don’t know. It’s hard to say,” responded Desjardins, who was confronted by Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin immediately after Fraser went down. “It’s in their court.”

But he wouldn’t be shocked if he was treated as if he had a target on his back?

“No,” Desjardins said. “Obviously I’ve got to be smart out there and keep my head up. That’s a given.”

*****After a cold stretch that saw him get only one point in eight games, Logan Couture is heating up again with nine points in his last nine games – including three in that last win over the Kings. Playing on the wing with Joe Thornton and Brent Burns the last two games hasn’t hurt.

“I feel like I’m getting a lot of opportunities,” said Couture, who now has 12 goals and 21 points in 26 games for the season. “Playing with Jumbo helps – he’s a passer and I like to shoot pucks.”

He and Burns almost seemed giddy after they engineered that 2-on-0 break against the Kings for what ended up being the game-winner Thursday night.

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“Yeah, that’s the way Burnzie is,” Couture said. “He’s a fun guy, he’s enjoyable to be around and he’s fun to play with. He made a great play to me and I was happy I scored. We were just joking around.”

*****Thomas Greiss didn’t make the trip, though Todd McLellan didn’t rule out the possibility the injured goaltender might join the team when it gets to frostier climates after Monday night’s game in Anaheim. Greiss has been sidelined with what is believed to be a neck injury suffered when he was run over in a March 6 loss to Calgary.

“He’s staying back, getting some therapy, getting some treatments,” the coach said. “He’ll see some doctors this week and we’ll get a better update as the week goes on.”

Meanwhile, Alex Stalock continues to back up starter Antti Niemi, who is starting to get recognition around the NHL for the stellar season he’s having even though the Sharks haven’t provided enough offense to fully take advantage in recent weeks.

*****This road trip may not make a lot of sense geographically – it starts and ends in Southern California, with stops in Edmonton and Minnesota in-between (you try packing one suitcase for all that), but there’s really not a lot for the Sharks to complain about.

For one thing, it’s an incredibly rare opportunity to face both the Kings and Anaheim Ducks after a single flight. Dan Rusanowsky, who keeps better track of these things than I do, was saying it’s happened twice in 20 years. For another, unlike that odd February trip, there are no back-to-backs or three days off between games. Mostly, it’s an “every other day we play” journey.

“This keeps us on the road longer, but it does spread the games out enough where we can get in and hopefully get some rest and get settled in each city,” McLellan said. As for playing the Kings and Anaheim with only a short bus trip to deal with, he added “that knocks two road games out without flying back and forth so we have to take advantage of that. No excuses with the way the road trip is set up.”

*****You likely haven’t noticed, but there’s a correction on the previous posting. During the 2004 World Junior Championship, Brent Burns’s linemates for Team Canada were Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter, not Ryan Getzlaf and Mike Richards as previously reported.

I could give the full explanation of how that happened (and I have, to the boss) but then it’d sound like I was making excuses. And we all know there are no excuses in hockey. Anyway, apologies to all involved — with the readers being at the top of that list.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

You can fire some of the players (and they should be) but you can’t fire them all. I posted about a month ago that both DW and TMac would be drawing their unemployment by May 1st. I haven’t seen anything since then that would change my mind.

Teejay

And Woodie should go with TMac also.

Matthew

Nemo has been the MVP, so I’m not down on him.. He had a bad game tonight. It happens, and it’s OK..so , Drew, it’s also OK for you to say that.

Wingels is better than Andy says…. Now, as far as Handzus, Clowe, Gomez, Murray? That’s another story

Andy

I’m with Teejay on both 101, and 102.

But I am sure the we will hear that it was just a bad night, and we have to put it behind us and get ready for Anaheim crap from the Captain.

Phil

I don’t think Wingels is great, but I will say that he is almost exactly average on our team. The only thing that’s slightly above average about him are his assists.

Zeke, Marleau was just coming off the bench, for Pav’s, I think. That would be a good line, but that leaves Pav’s, Couture and Clowe?

Andy

Really Matthew

Wingels is better then I say, tell me how? If you looking for someone who skates around and sometimes hits someone, but cannot score and is suspect on defense then he’s your guy. Think he fits the same MO as Mitchell did for us. Wingels career high for goals at ANY LEVEL 17.

Andy

Give me 20 Wingels and I will give you a team that might win 4 or 5 games.

Phil

Matthew @ 103

You just aren’t paying attention if you think Wingels is better than Clowe. The only way in which anyone could say that Wingels is better is that Wingels scored a goal.

The Linkster

This just in…..Clowe’s medical exam…..turns out he has no HEART.

Renoshark

Nemo has been the MVP this season. It’s sad that we need to have him stand on his head every night just to have a chance to win though. I don’t see too many W’s left on the schedule with this team.

Phil

Renoshark @ 111

I’d give Nemo the benefit of the doubt on the second goal, but the others were soft.

As for helping him out? We would have had to score five goals to make up for that. How many teams have scored five against LA this year? 5 games in 27.

That’s not merely an average night for Nemo. That’s a terrible outing.

carlos2

Right. That is the story tonight. If Niemi is not sensational every night, the Sharks are a no chance team. That says plenty about the quality of the team.

MLBSF

Matthew you would be wasting your time arguing with Phil about Clowe.

Evidently, Phil thinks Clowe is the Sharks’ MVP this year. All you have to do is read Phil’s 75 posts in this thread praising Clowe as one of the greatest hockey players in NHL history.

===

@101

I too look forward to many firings.

Andy

By my count the Kings 3rd line had 2 goals, the fourth line 2 goals and their top line 1 goal. Looking at the box score shows Wingels, Braun and Stuart -3, Gomez -4.

Renoshark

Phil;

I agree that Nemo had a bad game tonight. And I hope he isn’t getting into that good night/bad night rut that plagued him last season. He has stepped up his game this season. Unfortunately, he’s not getting rewarded with his good play.

CforPavs

On Wingles,

He’s a second year player, if that. He may be a liability on D, but he’s basically a rookie. He may not score much, yet, and it’s not like he’s expected to contribute more than maybe 10 goals this year.

But he does play hard. On a team that is playing-hard-challenged, he serves a very important role, much like Mcginn did. Maybe his efforts aren’t seen on the scoreboard, but they are felt by the oppositions D men, and that counts.

If I were rebuilding this team, Wingles is the guy I’d build the 3rd line around. The 1st line around Logan, the 2nd line around Pavs, and the 4th line around Desi. In a hypothetical, EA kind of way.

Matthew

Phil, I forgot how much you love Clowe… The dude is DONE. Seriously. He can no longer play anything above 4th line goon.

Look, opinions run high here. You know my list now. You disagree. ‘Nuff said. You won’t convince me different and I won’t convince you different.

Andy

Can anyone remember the last time our 3rd and 4th lines combined for 4 goals in a month, let alone a single game. That the difference between a cup champion and a playoff team. The 3rd lines wins playoff games.

Phil

Renoshark @ 111 – I’ll point out too that each of those games involved Jonathan Quick as their starting goaltender.

Carlos @ 113 – I’ll grant you that in terms of our offense, but our offense has actually gotten better of late. I’d give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of being able to score 3.

In this game, if Nemo had been average — not great! — and you assume that the one Stalock let in would’ve been Nemo, this would be an overtime game at least.

Niemi has to be better than that. Period.

Andy

CforPavs, And I remember people saying the same thing about Mitchell and Marcel Goc. Players like Wingels (effort guys) are a dime a dozen in the AHL.

Andy

120, An OT GAME AT BEST, are you NUTS? Come on dude the Kings allowed a garbage goal to Irwin at the end of the game, and weren’t even playing hard in the 3rd period. Even with a good Niemi we would have lost, unless Niemi pitched a shutout.

CforPavs

Niemi is allowed a couple of bad games if the rest of the team having a terrible season.

I’m ok with Niemi, he’s the least of the Sharks worries, even if he had a bad game tonite. He gets immunity, IMO.

Phil

Matthew @ 118

It’s not an opinion. It’s fact. Look at the stats.

If you think it’s easy to make numbers lie across that many dimensions, then I refer you to the same challenge I issued earlier: Make Handzus look good with stats.

CforPavs @ 117

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Wingels. I think he has the potential to develop into a second line scoring winger. But that’s a completely unfounded opinion and he’s not really there yet.

g-bum-man

This team can’t pass. They stink at it. Turnover after turnover. They RARELY make it through the neutral zone with speed. That combination means limited offensive opportunities.

They also can’t cycle on the boards very well. Other teams create space for the player with the puck when they cycle down low–by moving and giving that player a place to pass the puck. The Shark’s players off the puck just stand around and watch their teamate fight for the puck–making it way too easy for the other team’s defenders–and clogging up the area. Covering a guy that stands still is damn easy.

This is like watching a death from 1,000 papercuts.

Phil

Andy @ 122 –

On what planet is the Irwin goal a garbage goal? It’s an accurate, hard shot from the point. Bernier was screened. It was off the crossbar and in.

Look at three of the four Nemo let in tonight. Those are garbage goals.

And we have 2 young grinders. Wingles and Desi (as far as forwards). DW keeps on trading away all of the good young ones. Ask the Kings how their grinding “kids” helped last year in the PO. King? Clifford? Pretty effective.

Imagine if Wingles became a Bolland type of player. He was pretty important against the Sedin sisters wasn’t he. Or what if Wingles gets hot and starts putting some in, will DW see his trade value go up and trade him a-la McGinn so we never know what may have been?

Look, Wingles should not bear any of the other Sharks forwards woes this year.

Guys like Clowe, Pavs, the D in general, and Gomez (bust) are the reason this team is struggling offesively, among so many other reasons.

Please DW, don’t trade away hard working young players.

1+1=3

The nerd from that tv show “Numbers”….that is what we have on this board. He tries to spin every single thing for the Sharks by pretending that we all just don’t understand that e=mc squared

Phil

CforPavs @ 123

Yeah, I wouldn’t get rid of Niemi. But call a spade a spade. This was not even an average game for an NHL goaltender.

I guess you might put some of the blame on the D. But no defense is going to shutdown an NHL team from shooting all night long.

g-bum-man @ 125

It’s true that the Kings system was very good at pinning us in our own end. They moved the pressure up on their 1-2-2 to keep our new breakout technique (lofting the puck into the neutral zone while someone’s skating hard up ice) in check. We didn’t find a way through that the whole night.

ZEKE

It was kind of interesting to see the refs swallow their whistles for the first 2 periods (only called 3 very obvious penalties: Murray and Clifford for the fight and the penalty shot).

But they made a few calls in the 3rd — and considering what they’d let go by earlier, they were pretty weak (both ways). Topped off by the Burns penalty — goalie interference w/o any contact!!

I do like watching games where teams where the refs let the guys play — I had no problem with the refs letting it go. And no way did the refs play a role in the outcome of this one — this disaster was all on the Sharks.

Andy

CforPavs

Wingels is exactly Mitchell in every regard, just look at their career scoring histories. Comparing Wingels to Bolland is a complete and utter joke. Bolland is a very very good player, who had seasons with 79 and 59 goals in juniors. Wingels ENTIRE LIFE from JUNIORS UP as never scored 79 goals in a single season. His most ever is 17. Trust me when I tell you this although I know we will get a long dialog from GP and his cronies. A Player who has no history of scoring goals, does not all the sudden become a goal scorer in the NHL.

Andy

BTW, PHIL, reminds me a lot of GP

CforPavs

@Phil,

I believe Wingles has potential too. But he’s clearly not there yet because he’s still a young player. And unfortunately, he’s on a team that’s headed nowhere.

On a more general note,

I just want to hear from the Sharks that they are in a “rebuilding mode.” They don’t have to blow it up, just admit to their fans that their proverbial “window” has closed and that they are moving forward with guys like Wingles and maybe these kids on the Sharks can play with some freedom and creativity and less pressure. Maybe then they can develop into those 2nd line wingers and first pairing D men, like I believe some of them can.

Phil

CforPavs @ 127 –

C’mon, we knew Gomez was a bust going in. He’s the guy that scored two in Montreal last year. He was the poster boy for the amnesty buyout. People were setting up parties for Gomez’s goalless year.

I don’t really blame Pavs or Clowe either, though I’ll grant that Pavs has not been as positionally effective as he has been in years past.

But the D? Help me out here. Why do you blame the D?

ZEKE

I’ve seen enough of Wingels to give him a thumbs up. But like a lot of guys, he needs to be with players that he works well with. I’ve wanted to see Logan/Wingels/Desijardins again — they had just a couple shifts vs ANA and were dominating (including a goal).

Last year, we couldn’t find a lower line until Desi/Wingels/Winnik got together. Which makes me think if you put Desi/Wingels/savvy-guy-who-can-score together, we’d have a pretty effective line. Because I’ve seen it before. Twice.

MLBSF

LOOOOOL

In the world according to Phil (the Clowe lover), one bad game by Niemi against the Los Angeles Kings on March 16, 2013 is the reason why the Sharks aren’t any good this year.

If never read so much absurdity and babble by one fan in all of my life. Listen to him going on and on about how big a liability Niemi is, while he posts entry after entry about how Ryane “No Goals This Season” Clowe is our MVP.

Too funny.

Phil

Andy @ 132 –

That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.

Ok, guys. I’ve certainly posted enough. I’ll buy two beers for the person who writes the best parody of me at the next home game they show up to.

Deal?

CforPavs

@Andy

Is Bolland an NHL goal scorer? I had no idea. His most in the NHL, 19.

And like I already said, his efforts don’t show up in a scoreboard. He’s doing what a practical rookie should do, bang the body and play hard. Dave Bolland has 4+ years under his belt.

Couture-Wingels and Desi, OMG horrible horrible horrible idea. Sounds like TMAC idea, but 2 4th liners on a line with a top 6 forward.

CforPavs

****His efforts don’t show up*** referrign to Wingles.

Phil

The only credit I’ve ever given Mitchell was for having taken the funniest penalty I’ve ever seen when he swatted at that one guy. It looked like one of my cats swinging at a string.

I don’t think anyone on the ice had a straight face when the ref put him away for unsportsmanlike conduct.

CforPavs

@ Andy, you aren’t even reading my posts.

Said Desi Wingles and Pavs and Couture as different line centerpeices, in a (now pay attention) EA sports fantasy kind of way.

Get it?

Phil

I’m completely serious about those beers for the best parody of my writing.

This has got to be everything that FireDougWilson, NoCupWithDW, MLBSF, etc. have been waiting for.

I bet Snow Shovel, Lisa, and BLR could put in a good showing too.

CforPavs

@Phil,

The D hasn’t exactly contributed on the scoreboard this year.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our D. I think Stuart is a great addition that fell into DW’s lap. I still love Boyle (see Hedi’s postgame, the guy can move the puck), and I really like Irwin and Braun (and Demers even, I think he has a ton of POTENTIAL).

Vlasic is sound on D, but has no O instincts. And Murray, he has a special place in all Sharks fans hearts, I think.

So, look, my comments were to defend Wingles as some sort of fall guy for the offense while other players are to blame.

And yeah, Pavs has been dissapointing this year, but he may have the highest hockey IQ around and I would always keep him.

And to the person who said they’d like to see Wingles play with guys he works well with, and mentioned that maybe a Desi-Logan-Wingles line would be effective ….. TOTALLY AGREE. Thank you.

CforPavs

@ ZEKE #135,

Yes, agree totally.

I’m out. Time for bed.

1+1=3

On CBC, Elliotte Friedman says that the Rangers are looking to add defensemen and depth forwards.

He notes that prices are outrageous right now because no one wants to take on salary when the cap goes down next season and because the free agent market isn’t that strong.

The panel on HNIC said that teams are chasing the same three players, Ryane Clowe, Brenden Morrow and Derek Roy.

===============================

Ha ha, that is rich. Clowe as in NO goals is wanted for his fists, not his hands.

1+1=3

Sharks are 5 wins, 15 losses since the opening streak. They are minus 5 GF GA and they have only 8 ROW, which means they will definitely not get a playoff spot if there is a tie for 8th.

JRK

Who employs Remenda .. Comcast or the Sharks? He is the most irritating, unlistenable babbler as an analyst in all of sports. He’ll use 300 words to make a point that could be said in 50 words. He doesn’t speak directly to the TV audience, but only through the laughable banter and cozy inside relationship with Hahn. Forget about making cogent points at specific periodic intervals, but just constantly make uninvited intrusive jibberish remarks during Hahn’s play by play …. annoying, especially with his voice from hell. The replays at every stop in action are overkill and should be balanced with what’s going on at the benches, line changes, minutes, and inside info that places the TV viewer at the rink. Hedican is by far the more interesting analyst from a strictly hockey perspective, but the producers believe we need a Village whatever to make TV hockey interesting. I’d prefer a professional analyst, someone like a Brian Englom.

Phil

JRK @ 148

I’ll come out and say it — I actually like those replays.

Say what you will, but Drew was a member of the coaching staff of an NHL franchise. You’re getting a small taste of the inside scoop of what coaches do when he does that. I usually learn things from it. For example, I knew from watching the games that LA employed a 1-2-2 and what they were doing to stop the breakout, but the way Drew broke that down as a “triangle forecheck” was a much easier way of communicating the concept and some of its particulars rather than “You have one guy play deep, two guys trying to cut off passes at the offensive blue line, and two other guys at the red line who are there to protect against any long dump plays into the neutral zone”.